An Open Letter from Your President

My fellow Valhallans,

There have been many rumors circulating this week over Discord and Slack and on The Sea of Lanterns, so I wanted to take this opportunity, as your President, to set the record straight. Let me say first that the strength of our organization comes from you, and from your sense of unity. Dragonstar (and, of course, the Sky King himself, Mr. Royston Black, all hail, all hail) may have brought us together, but we have made Valhalla so much more than a mere fan club. We are a family, and I am proud to call you all my brothers and sisters. "As many, we are but sands scattered in the wind; but as one, we are the dragon."

Let me reassure you that, despite what you may have heard, I am still your President. Over this past week I have learned that Valhalla, like any family, is home to grudges and resentments and differences of opinion. I am not trying, as some have claimed, to silence those who disagree with me. Far from it. All viewpoints and beliefs are welcome in Valhalla. If there is a disagreement, then let us engage in civil debate. Do not hold onto bad feelings, letting them fester in silence until they explode. "'Tis better to know your mind, and disagree, and still call you 'brother,' than to wonder if we are brothers at all."

But there is a line that has been crossed, and it shall not be crossed again. To put it plainly: The Sea of Lanterns is a forum for intelligent discourse and debate. It is not a venue for personal insults, ad hominem attacks, or graphic sexual material. Use of the message board is a privilege, not a right, and the rules for posting will be strictly enforced.

Valhalla came into being nearly twenty years ago when a handful of friends started a Usenet group to talk about the latest episode of the greatest TV show of all time, Dragonstar. Over the years it gained more and more members, and as Dragonstar ended, the group's focus expanded to include all of the works of the Sky King Royston Black, and as we moved to Delphi and then our own servers we got larger and larger, until we became thousands, bonded by a common love, but with myriad opinions and interests. Valhalla is responsible for friendships, relationships, marriages, and even a few children, and that is what I am most proud of.

But I fear we have lost sight of why we came together in the first place, which is why the events of the last week have pained me so. It began on Saturday, when member BloodAxe posted on the "Bow Before Royston" section of The Sea that Friday's episode of Red Dogs, "You Can't Go Home Again," "sucked balls." BloodAxe announced that he was "done with this show" and "done with that hack Royston Black." Now, it is no secret that Red Dogs has not met with the critical acclaim or commercial success of Dragonstar or even the short-lived Tower (a forgotten classic in my and many others' eyes). The success (or lack thereof) of Red Dogs as a work of serial fiction has inspired many spirited debates on The Sea. But I confess that I had grown weary of the alleged consensus opinion, expressed on other boards and in the popular media, that Red Dogs is a failure, and BloodAxe's post was the last straw. In retrospect I should have let it go, but in my rage I drafted a reply to BloodAxe, informing him that personal attacks against members, including honorary member Royston Black, were not tolerated, and furthermore that, as Royston is the reason Valhalla and The Sea even exist, we should give his new show a chance and not merely dismiss it because one episode was not up to the standards of, say, "The Oarsman" (maybe the greatest hour of TV that has ever aired). I hit "post" and went to bed.

The next morning I woke to a veritable starstorm of invective on The Sea. BloodAxe had posted a reply in which he called me a "brainwashed sycophant," accused me of "sucking Royston Black's cock," and wished upon both Royston and myself "testicular cancer of the eyeballs." Dozens of other members had also posted replies in support of BloodAxe, the main thrust of which was that I was an "ass-kisser," a "toady," and a "sock puppet" of our Sky King. One member had photoshopped a picture of me as an actual puppet (using a photo from ValhallaCon '12), with Royston's hand up my backside.

Needless to say, these kinds of attacks are not what The Sea was created for. I closed the "Red Dogs Season 1" thread and suspended the accounts of the members who made personal attacks - actions which were well within my rights as Valhalla President and Moderator of The Sea of Lanterns. As part of the suspension process, an email was automatically sent to each suspended member, informing them that they had violated The Sea's guidelines for posting, and that they were blocked from posting for one week. I considered the matter closed at that point.

About an hour later, I received a text from Vice President Matt Starkey informing me that BloodAxe and the other suspended members had formed their own message board and were calling for my ouster as President, labeling me a "fascist" and equating me with the loathsome King Stranz. A photoshopped propaganda poster in which my face was superimposed on King Stranz's was featured on their site, and soon began cropping up in members' signatures on The Sea. I saw no choice but to fully ban the suspended members, as well as any members who displayed the photoshopped image of Stranz, including Vice-President Starkey. In the end, nearly two thirds of our number left to join BloodAxe's new group, The Oarsmen.

To those of you who remain, I say "thank you." Not for supporting your President, though I am grateful, but for staying true to the foundation upon which Valhalla was built. Like many of you, I first encountered Dragonstar by accident, flipping around the channels on a bored Friday night in college, when I was mesmerized by the sight of a Viking longship cutting through a sea of stars. It's like I was physically unable to change the channel. The action and the FX drew me in, but it was the characters who brought me back every Friday night: brave Hogar, devious Malefax, tragic Q'orzi. I stood side-by-side with them on the rainbow bridge Bifrost, defending Valhalla from the Slaek invasion; I felt every lash that Hogar felt when he was tortured by King Stranz; I stood on the prow of the Starward with Q'orzi as he led the charge against his former brothers in the Slaek armada, and I cradled him when he fell. When Malefax betrayed Hogar in Season 3, I felt the sting in my own heart, and I know you did too. I know you remember how it felt when you saw the steel oars of the Starward for the first time, to know that here is a story just for you. To know that you had found your true friends. To sit and bathe in that light, and to know that wherever you were, the light would raise you up into something greater.

Who were we, before Dragonstar? We were the sands, scattered in the wind. Now we are the dragon. We have seen the light and we have heard the words. We know the light and we know the words. The words make the light; the light makes the words. We say the words together, here, in the light. "I am Hogar, son of Hogurn, son of Hrogron. I have come from the land behind the storm, across the Sea of Lanterns, through the veil of life and death, into this enchanted box you call Valhalla. I have seen red skies and red tide and the black of the world beyond. I am the Sky King, and you will kneel." Let the words become light again. Let them shine in the dark and tell our enemies who we are. Let our dragon's fire announce our coming.

We have been chosen. We have received this gift and these words from the Sky King himself, and to denigrate his works is to denigrate the grace that he has bestowed upon us. The Oarsmen fail to see the truth. The light does not touch them as it touches us. If they wish to be cynical, then let them. The blood of the gods flows through us, and soon they will see what that means. "To the stars, and victory; and if we must die, then let us die in glory."

Best,

Trey Ryder

President, Valhalla: The Dragonstar Fan Club